I may have jumped the gun slightly on this, but, to my credit, I may have overestimated the intelligence currently inhabiting our federal court benches.

Not only is the succession of leadership made clear in the Dodd-Frank legislation that created the CFPB, but more troubling is that what Trump is doing provides him with a loophole around Senate confirmation. By naming Mulvaney as 'acting director', he doesn't need confirmation but also, technically, Trump is not obligated to name a full-time director who would then need confirmation, especially not for an office that Trump (and Mulvaney) have expressed an interest in parking in a ditch. The judge happens to be a Trump appointee, with barely two months on the bench. Go figure.

new development in the Great American-Russia Scandal. word on the street is there will be testimony against the Trump family. and if Trump is a listed as a co-conspirator, I doubt he will be able to pardon his way out of this.

also Trump says he fired Flynn because he lied to the FBI. did Trump know Flynn was guilty of lying to the FBI when he asked Comey to ease up? 'cause he sounds really jumpy.

Sat Dec 02, 2017 12:17 am

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

How very surprising that the conservative institution which proves to have the closest Russian ties happens to be the NRA.

Mon Dec 04, 2017 2:41 am

Oxnard Montalvo

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

I know some people have speculated that having Pence as president would mean a more Koch-friendly administration but we're probably already there so whatever. not that Trump's "man of the people" image was anything more than an image.

Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:07 am

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Are there any lawyers on the forum? This isn't about Taylor Swift.

I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not entirely sure how appropriate my laughter is to the novel new legal strategy laid out over the weekend by Trump's lawyers, which amounts to claiming that the president has obstruction immunity and that foreign collusion happens to be perfectly legal after all. I would like to have the confidence that these are the utterances of a desperate defense facing imminent indictments, but I don't want to wake up and find out something taken for granted wasn't actually a real law, like not disclosing your tax returns or bypassing anti-nepotism laws by forfeiting a salary and only taking foreign kickbacks instead.

I can see Jaw Secular pulling a Kelly and trying to edit Wikipedia on the sly to try to make his case.

Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:21 am

Oxnard Montalvo

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Jinnistan wrote:

I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not entirely sure how appropriate my laughter is to the novel new legal strategy laid out over the weekend by Trump's lawyers, which amounts to claiming that the president has obstruction immunity and that foreign collusion happens to be perfectly legal after all. I would like to have the confidence that these are the utterances of a desperate defense facing imminent indictments, but I don't want to wake up and find out something taken for granted wasn't actually a real law, like not disclosing your tax returns or bypassing anti-nepotism laws by forfeiting a salary and only taking foreign kickbacks instead.

that was sorta my reaction.... I might just be waiting to see if that defense works if/when any criminal charges worthy of indictment get brought up. and then what if it does? surely the political blowback would have to be immeasurable, right? I'm afraid reading some of this stuff just paralyzes me since I'm not sure what I can do. I am dearly sorry for not listening to the libertarians warning us about the executive branch's lack of accountability.

Wed Dec 06, 2017 1:51 pm

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Oxnard Montalvo wrote:

that was sorta my reaction.... I might just be waiting to see if that defense works if/when any criminal charges worthy of indictment get brought up. and then what if it does? surely the political blowback would have to be immeasurable, right?

The tricky part of this legal "so what?" tactic is that it implies that they committed these acts. You can't reasonable shift from a defense of "I didn't do it" to "I didn't intend to do it if what I did even qualifies as it" to "I did it, and I intended to do it, but lucky for us it turns out to be perfectly legal". I've heard a similar defense for Flynn, saying that "lying to the FBI is a crime, but he didn't need to lie because what he did wasn't a crime." Yeah, cool, but, hey, think, maybe.....we may not be privy yet to what he really did, so we can assume some kind of self-interested deceit was deemed necessary by this completely innocent man (*cough*).

Oxnard Montalvo wrote:

I am dearly sorry for not listening to the libertarians warning us about the executive branch's lack of accountability.

Snowden's "turnkey tyranny". Definitely those libs who were always brushing off concerns over Obama's kill-list and publicly opaque drone program need to heed this reckoning, because all of this falling back on "but we can trust him" bs has proven utterly indigestible.

Fri Dec 08, 2017 11:30 am

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Also, I don't think that Al Franken should have resigned. I don't understand the need for it.

I also think John Oliver is a twit.

Fri Dec 08, 2017 11:35 am

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

On a more positive note, Bryan Singer is going away for a long time.

Fri Dec 08, 2017 12:04 pm

BL

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Jinnistan wrote:

Also, I don't think that Al Franken should have resigned. I don't understand the need for it.

What's not to understand? Do you really think drawing this conflict out would result in a guaranteed Franken electoral victory in 2018?

_________________"It's OK to have beliefs, just don't believe in them." — Guy Ritchie

Fri Dec 08, 2017 12:30 pm

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

BL wrote:

What's not to understand? Do you really think drawing this conflict out would result in a guaranteed Franken electoral victory in 2018?

Out of the recent spate of congressional sexual assault allegations that have resulted in resignations or promises not to run again, I think that Franken's are the least worrisome. I find it odd that more Dems have demanded he step down than have similarly demanded of Conyers, who appears to have pretty clearly used his office female staff for his habitual sexual pleasure. (I don't know where Conyers currently stands, but I believe he's in the 'not running again but staying put' category.)

Franken's crassy cupping aside, his story was used as a fulcrum to leverage the allegations about Roy Moore, ie 'The Dems are hypocrites unless they agree to a tit-for-tat, Franken goes and Moore goes'. So not only do I not believe that Moore will be so impressed at Franken's sacrifice to withdraw himself, and will undoubtedly resist any ethics investigations if he wins office, but I still, ultimately, do not see the equivalance between Frankencreepyhands' shenanigans and Moore's 'I'm the DA so you need to take care of this for me before the mall closes and your mother picks you up'. Franken, as reported so far, has not been shown to have used coercion against children, employees or anyone else with a disporportinate power dynamic, and he hasn't been shown to use the threat of retaliation to intimidate or silence his victims. So I don't buy the symmetry of these two cases as they were presented in new media. I've noticed that many liberal writers are now saying things like, "Franken's gone, as he should be, now let's remove Roy Moore'. I think that this strategy is exceptionally naive. Roy Moore will likely have a lot more power than Al Franken next year.

Fri Dec 08, 2017 12:49 pm

Melvin Butterworth

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Jinnistan wrote:

Also, I don't think that Al Franken should have resigned. I don't understand the need for it.

Yeah, his resignation may do more harm than good.

Fri Dec 08, 2017 12:55 pm

Stu

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Jinnistan wrote:

(I don't know where Conyers currently stands, but I believe he's in the 'not running again but staying put' category.)

Well, he was, but he actually just went ahead and resigned immediately a couple of days ago, so that seat is currently vacant. Conyers is endorsing his son to replace him, but seeing as how he's possibly guilty of domestic abuse himself, that's probably not such a good idea...

Franken's crassy cupping aside, his story was used as a fulcrum to leverage the allegations about Roy Moore, ie 'The Dems are hypocrites unless they agree to a tit-for-tat, Franken goes and Moore goes'.

and/or greater leverage to hit at Trump for his stuff. provided that will do a damn bit of good and it might not. *shrug*

Fri Dec 08, 2017 2:37 pm

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Stu wrote:

Well, he was, but he actually just went ahead and resigned immediately a couple of days ago, so that seat is currently vacant.

Ah, OK. But I still have a feeling that Conyers, despite his heartbreakingly consistent record on civil rights, does not have the name recognition of Al Franken, and that Franken is still considered the big game in this process due to his higher profile. In any event, his resignation seems more symbolic than efficacious. I hate to sound partisan (which is totally, like, worse than raping 16 year olds), but I can't help but notice how one party seems more committed to this new era we find ourselves, while another party seems as if they're on the verge of electing a Senator who has most likely raped 16 year olds before citing the goddamn Mother Mary as a rationalization for it (which, in itself, is a kind of ethical rape of my intellect).

Sun Dec 10, 2017 8:22 am

Stu

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Jinnistan wrote:

Ah, OK. But I still have a feeling that Conyers, despite his heartbreakingly consistent record on civil rights, does not have the name recognition of Al Franken, and that Franken is still considered the big game in this process due to his higher profile. In any event, his resignation seems more symbolic than efficacious. I hate to sound partisan (which is totally, like, worse than raping 16 year olds), but I can't help but notice how one party seems more committed to this new era we find ourselves, while another party seems as if they're on the verge of electing a Senator who has most likely raped 16 year olds before citing the goddamn Mother Mary as a rationalization for it (which, in itself, is a kind of ethical rape of my intellect).

Yup; while left-wingers in general are, of course, hardly guilt-free when it comes to committing sexual harassment or assault, in general they seem far more principled when it comes to addressing the predators out there who happen to run in their circles. Meanwhile, Fox "News" spends so much time pointing out the hypocrisy of Hollywood and the Democratic party when it comes to Weinstein or Franken, they barely said a peep about Roger Ailes transgressions, a man who had just a little bit of involvement with that particular channel...

they barely said a peep about Roger Ailes transgressions, a man who had just a little bit of involvement with that particular channel...

They also didn't seem to have a problem with paying out a 32 million dollar settlement to one of O'Reilly's accusers, before signing O'Reilly to a hefty multimillion dollar deal, and also before trying to act shocked when it learned how much money they were paying out to O'Reilly accusers, etc, etc.

Sun Dec 10, 2017 10:40 am

Stu

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

The "moral values" they always claim to care so much about only matters as far as whether or not you have a "D" or an "R" next to your name, it would seem:

I hate to sound partisan (which is totally, like, worse than raping 16 year olds), but I can't help but notice how one party seems more committed to this new era we find ourselves, while another party seems as if they're on the verge of electing a Senator who has most likely raped 16 year olds before citing the goddamn Mother Mary as a rationalization for it (which, in itself, is a kind of ethical rape of my intellect).

since I know there are many Republicans who like to site the slippery slope argument, maybe tolerating a sexual predator like Trump was not a step in the right direction. as long as they are okay with this new standard towards sexual misconduct letting others feel emboldened to speak publicly about their own abuse/harassment.

(I personally have always been unsure how much weight to put behind Trump/etc's sexual misconduct since it's not technically related to policy or governing and because it's not related to that stuff, his supporters might be able to look past it. I suppose there are many of us who assumed that, "well, if Republicans won't care about all this other shit, surely they'll care if Trump has been grabbing women between the legs 'cause so many of them are sexual puritans, for better or for worse." but I guess that's not the case? I mean as long as he's gonna stick it to the Muslims, immigrants, journalists, elites, Hollywood, welfare scammers, liberals, socialists, globalists, who cares if he touched only a few women only a few times many years ago?)

Sun Dec 10, 2017 2:36 pm

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Oxnard Montalvo wrote:

I personally have always been unsure how much weight to put behind Trump/etc's sexual misconduct since it's not technically related to policy or governing and because it's not related to that stuff, his supporters might be able to look past it.

I think that this behavior is actual reflective of policy more than that. It's not a coincidence that the Republicans are also the party that wants to shut down funding for Planned Parenthood, who have been eager to see DeVos reverse Obama's guidelines on reporting and investigating campus assault, whose reversal of greater scrutiny on law enforcement means avoiding any pesky studies on untested rape kits, etc etc.

More general than this "anti-PC" impulse is that Trump's unapologetic arrogance ("You can do anything" - the most telling part of the Access Hollywood tape) is also reflective of the overall tenor of the party, and their policy aims, at the moment. This kind of Darwinist (fascist) entitlement to power lies behind a great deal of the thinking which justifies the more cruel implications of their tax, health, education and environmental positions. In fact, this power also entitles any Republican to rewrite the reality that stands in the way of their preferences, and Trump's....let's call it a limber outlook on facts....also reflects this ability to dictate what is real and what is not, and, I don't doubt at all, that this brazen "fabulist" is exactly what his more ardent supporters admire about him. He can do anything.

It reminds me of Bill Clinton's book, where he explains his thinking concerning the Lewinsky scandal and his arrogant assault on copulative semantics, and his takeaway, in his mid-50s, is the kindergarten realization that "because I could" was really a piss-poor excuse for doing just about anything. I'm very happy to see him come to this realization after being the most powerful man in the world when such a realization would have been most helpful. As for Trump, we should be most concerned that he hasn't yet had such a realization, may be incapable of such a realization, and whose desperate demand for attention reflects his need to validate this presumed omnipotence. He needs to be a star and he needs to do anything he wants. Just like a man, ladies. A man who knows how to take what he wants. This kind of Randian fantasy is the bread and butter of the current GOP. A man (Ayn never waivered on gender here) should be free to be a man. He tells it like it is.

Mon Dec 11, 2017 2:56 am

Oxnard Montalvo

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Jinnistan wrote:

I think that this behavior is actual reflective of policy more than that. It's not a coincidence that the Republicans are also the party that wants to shut down funding for Planned Parenthood, who have been eager to see DeVos reverse Obama's guidelines on reporting and investigating campus assault, whose reversal of greater scrutiny on law enforcement means avoiding any pesky studies on untested rape kits, etc etc.

More general than this "anti-PC" impulse is that Trump's unapologetic arrogance ("You can do anything" - the most telling part of the Access Hollywood tape) is also reflective of the overall tenor of the party, and their policy aims, at the moment. This kind of Darwinist (fascist) entitlement to power lies behind a great deal of the thinking which justifies the more cruel implications of their tax, health, education and environmental positions. In fact, this power also entitles any Republican to rewrite the reality that stands in the way of their preferences, and Trump's....let's call it a limber outlook on facts....also reflects this ability to dictate what is real and what is not, and, I don't doubt at all, that this brazen "fabulist" is exactly what his more ardent supporters admire about him. He can do anything.

m'yeah.... obviously I don't disagree but I'm just too cynical to think this will mean anything to the people who already voted for him and still support him.... like if they're going to use the "Trump is a sexual predator" angle to try and take him down now... I dunno, I'm not sure it's going to necessarily work. we already knew that before the election.

and I'm already starting to worry that the Democrats are going to spend more time pointing out how bad Trump/Republicans are and not enough time trying to be a better party.

Tue Dec 12, 2017 2:06 pm

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Oxnard Montalvo wrote:

I'm already starting to worry that the Democrats are going to spend more time pointing out how bad Trump/Republicans are and not enough time trying to be a better party.

And they remain petrified of the Republican narrative (which is why Franken resigned).

I saw earlier today that, Nadler, I think, wants to investigate these allegations of the FBI's bias against Trump, saying something about getting to the bottom of it. It's total bullshit. Stop buying their bullshit! Even the Republicans in the FBI can't stand Trump because he's constantly publicly deriding them.

Tue Dec 12, 2017 2:14 pm

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Is anyone tracking the uptick in domestic assault reports in Alabama tonight? I fear there will be pistol-whipping aplenty.

Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:44 pm

BL

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Jinnistan wrote:

Is anyone tracking the uptick in domestic assault reports in Alabama tonight? I fear there will be pistol-whipping aplenty.

Steve Bannon's Real Doll must be taking a pounding tonight.

_________________"It's OK to have beliefs, just don't believe in them." — Guy Ritchie

Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:46 pm

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

BL wrote:

Steve Bannon's Real Doll must be taking a pounding tonight.

I hope that his tears are non-abrasive.

Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:48 pm

DaMU

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Tonight was a good night.

Wed Dec 13, 2017 2:25 pm

Stu

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Oxnard Montalvo wrote:

m'yeah.... obviously I don't disagree but I'm just too cynical to think this will mean anything to the people who already voted for him and still support him.... like if they're going to use the "Trump is a sexual predator" angle to try and take him down now... I dunno, I'm not sure it's going to necessarily work. we already knew that before the election.

and I'm already starting to worry that the Democrats are going to spend more time pointing out how bad Trump/Republicans are and not enough time trying to be a better party.

Yeah; I mean, of course I'm happy that Jones beat Moore last night, but it feels to me like he only (barely) won due to a combination of how incompetent/unpresidential/unpopular Trump was, and how batshit his opponent was. Position-wise, he's not particularly progressive; he's a centrist Dem, which is how they lost the last election, by assuming that the most centered, status-quo candidate would win if she was running up against a horrible buffoon. I mean, Jones did win HIS election, but it took squandering the election to the most unpopular President in our lifetimes to get him that, as far as I'm concerned. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if the Dems win in 2020 against Trump (or Pence, or whoever) if they run another center-lefter, but that only works until for a term or two of President Kamala Harris or whoever, until the swing states swing in 2028 back to whoever the Republicans nominate, someone who's somehow even worse than Trump. Time to get progressive and stay that way for good, is all I'm saying.

yeah.... there's plenty of reasons to take last night's victory with a grain of salt. but it's still worth giving it a few months I guess.

but yeah, Not Being Roy Moore isn't a high bar to clear but at least he cleared it when it was possible that he would be unable to do so. *shrug*

Thu Dec 14, 2017 8:56 am

DaMU

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

I don't know enough about Alabama to make a stink over how tight the voting was, but one thing I try to remember is that the backfire effect is very real and can cause us to double-down on our errors even if we might dimly recognize the value in the opposing argument. And then combine that with the "sunk cost" fallacy, and I think a lot of people will vote for someone like Moore while simultaneously recognizing how terrible he is - but since they made their choice, they made their choice.

[I also have to keep remembering that when someone believes that abortion is murder, full stop, it's hard to see past the daily holocaust and evaluate a race on other terms. I don't agree with the idea, but obviously that's the only moral response if you do agree with it.]

This is all good news. The blowback to Trump electorally has been solid and reliable, and the past few months especially are relieving after earlier in the year, when Dems were improving on past numbers without securing seats.

Thu Dec 14, 2017 10:18 am

Stu

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Oxnard Montalvo wrote:

yeah.... there's plenty of reasons to take last night's victory with a grain of salt. but it's still worth giving it a few months I guess.

but yeah, Not Being Roy Moore isn't a high bar to clear but at least he cleared it when it was possible that he would be unable to do so. *shrug*

This really was a bit of an election wasn't it? I like the way that Kyle Kulinski put it: "*whispers*If Doug Jones was for medicare for all and a living wage he would've won by 10 points.". Can't say that I disagree, really.

yeah..... but I guess it will be the Democrats' problem to see how well he integrates with the rest of the team.

btw I just thought of a scene from The Simpsons that reminded me of this:

Jinnistan wrote:

I think that this behavior is actual reflective of policy more than that. It's not a coincidence that the Republicans are also the party that wants to shut down funding for Planned Parenthood, who have been eager to see DeVos reverse Obama's guidelines on reporting and investigating campus assault, whose reversal of greater scrutiny on law enforcement means avoiding any pesky studies on untested rape kits, etc etc.

in Bart the General there's a scene where Bart slaps one of his soldiers for letting his nerves get the better of him (a la Patton) after which Grampa chastises him saying, "you can push them out of a plane, you can march them off a cliff, you can send them off to die on some godforsaken rock, but for some reason you can't slap them."

He's going to fire Mueller. Nothing will be done about it. Despair will deepen.

Sun Dec 17, 2017 8:49 am

crumbsroom

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Jinnistan wrote:

The internet is officially broken.

As if there aren't already enough people in US politics I would give my life savings to kick in the fucking dick right now.

Regardless of my internet persona, I am generally a fairly peace and love kind of person (even if of the cranky variety). But I've become so full of toxic hate because of this administration that I'm probably going to end up in a hospital before this term is over.

I think I'm going to have to become a Buddhist and live on a mountain or something. My options are becoming slim. Intravenously shooting scotch is probably not feasible, after all.

Sun Dec 17, 2017 8:54 am

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Maybe we can make this awareness thread a bit more controversial and nudge it out of the realm of echo chamber back-patting.

One of the hotter, more contentious articles this week was the Emily Yoffe piece at Politico warning of a #metoo backlash. The article raises a lot of issues that should be discussed, and no better proof of this need than in the apparent unwillingness of so many people to discuss it. (Also, the Harvard paper linked in the article has some very eye-opening claims on Title IX that are not easy to dismiss.)

For the sake of argument, let's take Kirsten Gillibrand, a Senator I admire on many issues, and her take on whether or not Al Franken's behavior can be compared to that of Roy Moore or Harvey Weinstein: "We should not have to be explaining the gradations between sexual assault, harassment and unwelcome groping." Well, no. In a perfect world, we should not have to explain such things. But yet, here we are, and apparently there seems to be some imperfection in people's abilities to differentiate the punitive consequences of variable harm. In our rather rigid binary mode right now, we can either believe women entirely (like Jaime Phillips?) or we can be complicit rape apologists. We can't, for example, point out that petty theft generally deserves less punishment than armed robbery, because we really should not have to explain the gradations of violent larceny, and we certainly couldn't point out this disparity without implicitly apologizing or excusing the crime of petty theft.

I believe about ten people I've ever met in my life. In the unconditional sense of total trust. I think that beliefs are precious things that people should be careful to exercise. I think that a great many problems in the world today arise from people with an impulsive need to believe. However, I also know that since such a slim minority of sexual assault claims turn out to be fraudulent, then the accusers deserve the benefit of the doubt, with reflexive sympathy and sensitivity. They do not deserve reflexive suspicion, which has been the default mode of such inquiries in the past. However, as small as the fraction of false claims are - and the numbers seem to range between 2-8% depending on studies - there's no doubt that these false claims exist, and that victims of false accusations also deserve sympathy presicely because their rarity makes them so easy to ignore.

Matt Damon is a putz. He obviously (in my educated guess) knew about Harvey Weinstein's shenanigans and chose to ignore them as long as his ignorance proved beneficial. He's almost the perfect candidate for liberal moral flatulence, condescending but too vapid to respect. Plus, his head is a fucking toe.

But his remarks this week, which blew up into a twit-tiz due to a flaming response from his ex-girlfriend Minnie Driver, has the additional problem that Damon didn't really say anything objectionable. Or rather, he didn't say anything that I haven't already said on the matter, which is that "there's a spectrum of behavior" between the petty and the criminal, between being a boor and being a rapist, and that it's counterproductive to conflate these two ends of a spectrum of overall deplorable male behavior. According to Driver's response, we learn two things that men simply do not have a right to discuss: 1) any opinion on the issue whatsoever; and 2) differentiating these grades of misbehavior. Amber Tamblyn has also denied the need to distinguish between the scale of violation involved, proposing a one-shoe sentence for perpertrators of all stripes: excommunication, to "go away".

Backlashes are born in such a rigidity of judgment.

Sun Dec 17, 2017 9:09 am

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

crumbsroom wrote:

He's going to fire Mueller. Nothing will be done about it. Despair will deepen.

I'm not convinced that the FBI will stand by idlely. Many agents, either anonymously or through former agents speaking on the current morale's behalf, deeply despise Trump. They've tried to make this a partisan issue, with the story of a couple of agents' text messages making fun of Trump (because they're adults), but it's been pointed out that many Republicans are just as disgusted by his behavior as liberals. I mean, Trump's own Secretary or State called him a "fucking moron" in a official meeting, and his NS advisor called him a "kindergartener" to an important fundraiser. Their brazenness should tell you something, these are not considered controversial opinions.

One former FBI agent mentioned why he believes that the agency hates Trump, and it was because Trump never criticizes Putin but never resists an opportunity to trash the FBI. Like Clockwork, when Trump went to give an address to FBI graduates this week, where he unfailingly managed to neg their workforce both at the event and with prior tweets, he also took out the time before the event to make sure he praised Putin for the latter's nice words complimenting Trump's economy.

At any rate, we will surely begin seeing the results of the Mueller investigation trickling out to the press, Mueller's Republican allies will not soon forget who turned their backs on him.

Sun Dec 17, 2017 9:21 am

crumbsroom

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Jinnistan wrote:

I'm not convinced that the FBI will stand by idlely. Many agents, either anonymously or former agents speaking on the current morale's behalf, deeply despise Trump. They've tried to make this a partisan issue, with the story of a couple agent's text messages making fun of Trump (because they're adults), but it's been pointed out that many Republicans are just as disgusted by his behavior as liberals. I mean, Trump's own Secretary or State called him a "fucking moron" in a official meeting, and his NS advisor called him a "kindergartener" to an important fundraiser. Their brazenness should tell you something, these are not considered controversial opinions.

One former FBI agent mentioned why he believes that the agency hates Trump, and it was because Trump never criticizes Putin but never resists an opportunity to trash the FBI. Like Clockwork, when Trump went to give an address to FBI graduates this week, where he unfailingly managed to neg their workforce both at the event and with prior tweets, he also took out the time before the event to make sure he praised Putin for the latter's nice words complimenting Trump's economy.

At any rate, we will surely begin seeing the results of the Mueller investigation trickling out to the press, Mueller's Republican allies will not soon forget who turned their backs on him.

I honestly hope your faith that things aren't as hopeless as I think they are has legs. As for your previous post, many valid points, all of which my response will need to be better measured than my currently inebriated state is capable of. I'll try and bookmark for later. After that plucky debacle last year, I'm wise to how horribly these things can turn if words aren't chosen wisely.

Sun Dec 17, 2017 9:31 am

Jinnistan

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

crumbsroom wrote:

After that plucky debacle last year, I'm wise to how horribly these things can turn if words aren't chosen wisely.

Aw, pluckylump. I hope he doesn't take it personally. We agree on more than we don't.

All I ask is to consider the Politico article, and to try to stretch out of the tendency for everything to calcify into two sides. I've been, for the most part, fairly defensive of Title IX, on principle, but there's no reason why anyone shouldn't be reconsidering the practice of how its been implemented and seeing the need for reforms after reading that Harvard paper. I hope we can acknowledge this without being slandered as a DeVos devotee.

Sun Dec 17, 2017 9:39 am

Oxnard Montalvo

Re: A Corrierino Awareness Thread

Quote:

One of the hotter, more contentious articles this week was the Emily Yoffe piece at Politico warning of a #metoo backlash. The article raises a lot of issues that should be discussed, and no better proof of this need than in the apparent unwillingness of so many people to discuss it.

just from reading the Politico piece, there are a few easy solutions one could take like informing the accused about the nature of the complaints, not applying the one-size-fits-all style punishment.... I'm just worried that as soon as someone incredibly bad gets through, there will be a massive backlash (just as I'm sure there are people who are only worried about things getting through, fullstop). I'd like to think there are enough people who don't fall into the "all accusers are liars/all accusers are truthful" dichotomy but are also too uneasy of appearing to "enable" rapists. which could just be cosmetics.

at the risk of making things into an echo-chamber, I agree with your thoughts but I'm not sure how to express them in a way that won't make advocates of stopping sexual assault believe they are getting their backs pushed against the wall (I don't feel that is what you or the author of the Politico piece are doing and hopefully others do too). because ideally these issues should be done with due process and not out in the open.... so maybe getting to the root of why these issues don't reach the proper authorities? and with the issues that reach the proper authorities and are handled at the expense of the accused, like the college kids in the Politico article, I guess start with some of the easier reforms that Politico mentioned?

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